This invention relates to a crimping connector, and more particularly to a crimping connector having a terminal receiving portion for receiving crimping terminals connected respectively to many wires of electronic equipment, a wire harness in an automobile or the like.
One conventional crimping connector of the type described is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 59-184476. As shown in FIG. 1, this crimping connector 100 comprises two housings 101 and 102 of an identical configuration integrally connected together through a thin hinge 105 at their adjacent sides in right-left symmetrical relation to other. Each of the housings 101 and 102 including an upwardly-open wire connecting portion 103 and a terminal connecting portion 104 of a closed cross-sectional shape communicating with the wire connecting portion 103 (see FIG. 1(a) and 1(b)). The wire connecting portion 103 has a plurality of juxtaposed receiving portions 107 separated from one another by a plurality of partition walls 106, and crimping terminals 108 are mounted in the receiving portions 107, respectively. The crimping terminal 108 is fitted in the receiving portion 107 in such a manner that part of this terminal 108 is inserted in the terminal connecting portion 104. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of terminal insertion ports 110 for respectively receiving male terminals (not shown) in a mating housing 400 are formed in one side surface 109 of the terminal connection portion 104, and correspond respectively to the receiving portions 107. Inserted ends of the crimping terminals 108, inserted in the terminal connecting portion 104, communicate with the terminal insertion ports 110, respectively.
Sheathed wires 200 are supplied to be disposed respectively above the crimping terminals 108, and are pressed downward by a crimping jig 300, and are press-fitted respectively into slots 111 formed respectively in the crimping terminals 108 (see FIG. 1(b)). As a result of this press-fitting operation, a sheath of each sheathed wire 200 is cut by opposite side edges of the slot 111, so that a conductor 201 of the sheathed wire 200 contacts the crimping terminal 108, and hence is press-connected thereto (see FIG. 1(c)).
After each sheathed wire 200 is thus connected to the associated crimping terminal 108, one 102 (or 101) of the housings is turned about the hinge 105 in a direction of an arrow, so that the open sides of the receiving portions 107 in the housing 101 are opposed and joined to the open sides in the housing 102 (see FIG. 1(c)), thereby obtaining the crimping connector 100 of a two-stage construction as shown in FIG. 2.
However, in the conventional crimping connector 100, after the sheathed wires 200 are press-connected relative to the one housing 101, the jig 300 or one of the housings 101 and 102 is horizontally moved, and then the sheathed wires 200 are press-connected relative to the other housing 102, and therefore there has been encountered a problem that the crimping process is complicated, so that the efficiency of the operation is lowered. Although it may be proposed to increase the jig 300 to such a large size that the jig 300 can cover the two housings 101 and 102, this increases the cost, and involves the high crimping force, and hence is not practical.
In the conventional crimping connector 100, when the two housings 101 and 102 are joined together, the lower-stage housing 101 and the upper-stage housing 102 are vertically inverted with respect to each other, and therefore the male terminals in the mating connector 400 need to be arranged in accordance with the arrangement of the crimping terminals 108, which has invited a problem that the efficiency of arrangement of a terminal assembly in the mating connector 400 is lowered.
More specifically, if each of the male terminals 401 in the mating connector 400 includes a contact terminal 402 having a joint portion 403 as shown in FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b), and the male terminals 401 for the upper and lower stages are arranged in the same forward direction in the mating connector 400, there inevitably occurs a condition in which the joint portions 403 contact resilient contact portions 112 of the crimping terminals 108, provided in the lower-stage housing 101 or the upper-stage housing 102 (see FIG. 4), when the mating connector 400 is fitted on the crimping connector 100. In this case, an electrically-insulating substance is liable to be produced at that portion of each joint portion 403 held in contact with the resilient contact portion 112, so that the electrically-contacted condition is not stable. Therefore, it is necessary to mount the terminal assembly of the mating connector 400 in such a manner that the terminal assembly will not be in the above contacted condition. As a result, there has been encountered a problem that the assembling operation is complicated, so that the efficiency of the operation is lowered.